Your Phi Theta Kappa Experience:
Honoring Scholars and Building Servant Leaders
You’ve made the grade - now it’s time to reap the rewards. Phi Theta Kappa’s primary mission is to recognize students for their academic achievement. Your membership certificate entitles you to much more than recognition; it’s your ticket to building a better you. Phi Theta Kappa can help you achieve your goals by an approach we call Honors in Action, based on our four Hallmarks of Scholarship, Leadership, Service, and Fellowship. Simply put, Honors in Action provides you with opportunities to LEARN, LEAD and SERVE.
Learn. Explore real-world issues through our Honors Study Topic. Currently, we’re discovering the many facets of The Democratization of Information: Power, Peril, and Promise. These are issues that affect your everyday life – from social networking sites to scientific advances that can make the last decade’s innovations seem quaint. This Honors Program Guide asks provocative questions whose answers will determine our collective future. How do educators prepare students for jobs that don’t yet exist? Can “sexting” be a crime? Should any information be censored on the Internet?
Lead. After exploring in detail the issue that means the most to you and your chapter, you’re ready to plan an Honors in Action Project. This takes leadership abilities – such as goal setting, teambuilding, organizing and motivating. As you develop a project, you should seek out others as mentors and partners – teachers, community leaders and colleagues. All of us have leadership strengths and deficiencies. Phi Theta Kappa’s Leadership Development Studies resources can help develop and advance your skills. For further information, visit http://leadership.ptk.org.
Serve. This is so much more than volunteering your time. Serving is the “action” part of Honors in Action. It’s taking what you have learned and applying it to make a positive difference. You’ll learn by serving, too. Reflection is a critical component of service learning. A guide for effective reflection can be summed up in three questions: (1) What? (What occurred?), (2) So what? (What does it mean?) and (3) Now what? (What does this mean for future actions?).
Other Opportunities To Enhance Your Phi Theta Kappa Experience:
Five Star Competitive Edge
This is Phi Theta Kappa’s personal and professional development plan that helps members enhance the skills and abilities that transfer recruiters and employers are looking for – such as critical thinking, writing, professional etiquette and goal setting. Competitive Edge is for ALL members, regardless of chapter size, activity level of chapter, or chapter location, and can be completed as an individual endeavor. The plan features five levels of activities – from one star to five stars – and is tracked completely online at http://my.ptk.org. Activities range from completing online courseware to gaining leadership experience.
Annual Convention
The Phi Theta Kappa Annual Convention is the largest multinational gathering of community college students in the world. At the Convention, members learn from internationally known speakers and interact with peers and faculty. Educational forums offer in-depth examination of the Honors Study Topic, leadership and service-learning opportunities, college transfer, and career advice. Participants have called it a life-changing experience. Come prepared to gain a fresh perspective on our world! Learn more at http://convention.ptk.org.
Honors Institute and Honors Seminars
Known as the crown jewel of Phi Theta Kappa’s honors programming, the Honors Institute provides a week’s intensive study of the Honors Study Topic through outstanding speakers, intimate group discussions, field trips, and experiential exercises. Many Institute attendees make friendships that last a lifetime. Visit http://www.ptk.org/honors/institute/ to learn more about the upcoming Honors Institute.
The Honors Seminar Series brings Honors Study Topic experts to your campus via DVD and/or web downloads. Supplement your Honors in Action research with a viewing and discussion of the seminar presentations. Visit www.ptk.org/honors/seminars for speaker information, subscription rates, and promotional materials.
Five Star Chapter Development Plan
Chapters are encouraged to use this Honors Program Guide as the basis for their chapter programming. To help put all the (chapter) pieces together, we’ve designed a step-by-step guide called the Five Star Chapter Development Plan. Level by level, step by step, your chapter will be able to follow a plan of activities that build chapter membership, administrative support, and Honors in Action programming. And the best part is your chapter determines how active you want to be – from one star to five stars. All chapters who achieve any level in the Five Star Chapter Development Plan will receive recognition locally, regionally, and internationally. Read more about the Five Star Plan at www.ptk.org/fivestar.
Hallmark Awards
The Hallmark Awards are the Society’s competitive awards, designed to recognize the best of the best. Award categories recognize chapters, regions, members, officers, advisors, and even college administrators for their demonstration of Honors in Action! For a complete list of categories, entry forms and judging guidelines, visit www.ptk.org/hallmarks.
Chapter, Regional and International Officers
Members who are interested in taking an active leadership role within Phi Theta Kappa can aspire to officer positions at the chapter, regional, and international levels. The number and structure of chapter and regional officer positions vary from chapter to chapter and region to region. See your chapter advisor and Regional Coordinator for more information. At the Annual Convention, chapter voting delegates elect five members to the International Officer Team, which consists of the International President and four Divisional Vice Presidents. More information is available at www.ptk.org/directories/intofficers.htm.
